The standard ignition system which has been utilized for automobile internal combustion engines consists of an ignition coil connected to the distributor which has a rotary switch connected sequentially to the various spark plugs. The ignition coil is a transformer in which the primary winding is connected to the battery and the secondary winding is connected to the distributor. When the breaker points in the distributor disrupt the voltage in the primary coil, a high voltage surges through the secondary coil. These breaks in the primary current are timed to take place near the top of each pistons compression stroke. A condenser across the breaker points prevents sparking across the points and helps provide a clean electrical break resulting in a high voltage spark in the cylinder. The voltage from the secondary of the ignition coil must be great enough to produce a spark across the spark plug electrodes which is hot enough to ignite the highly compressed gasoline-air mixture in the cylinder.
Ignition modifying devices have been previously proposed for insertion in the electrical line between the secondary winding of the coil and the distributor, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,736,760 and 2,841,629. However, these devices do not utilize a structure in which the ignition coil secondary is connected to a spark prolonging device wound about an electrically inert material, in reversed directions in order to increase the effective time of the spark.